GERMANY FROM ABOVE4th Season

Episode 11: Country

Natural beauties show their most spectacular side when looked at from above. The second episode of “Germany From Above 4“ takes us to the countryside – over fields, woods, and wildness. Pristine nature is quite rare since most natural environments are man-made.

The „Monte Kali“ near Heringen is for instance the highest artificial German mountain. The farmer-made perfect symmetry of the hop fields in Baverian Holledau reveal all their magic when you look at them from above.

Hikers are charmed not only towards wild landscapes like the Höllentalklamm at the Zugspitze mountain. In 2014 a 75 meter big crop circle near the radome at Raisting in Bavaria attracted curiosity-seekers from all the world to the Ammersee. We shot these science fiction shapes and their visitors from an adequate perspective: from above. Yet no matter how intergalactic a redesigned field can be, it is still quite an extraordinary experience when you do see the hidden, all very earthy inhabitants of meadows and woods. Near the river Main in Franconia we encounter at eyes´height those flying artists that dwell only in healthy forests with clean waters: the black storks.

We fly with two black stork parents giving „flight lessons“ to their young bird and visualise the real GPS data of the flying territory. Just like we track the route of a female wolf who was born in a military training camp near Magdeburg and wandered almost to Hamburg.

The waldrapps were extinct in Germany already in the XVII century. Now their late offsprings, kept in zoos and born in captivity are brought back into the wild. Yet the funny-looking ibis have to learn the migration route from Germany to Italy from their human „parents“ flying on an ultra-light aircraft. We were in the air with the young waldrapps, accompanying a few of their training sessions in the Berchtesgadener Land, one of the most spectacular nature areas in Germany.

Much smaller flying and orientation wizards do have their place in „Germany From Above“ too. We show how bees fly following a kind of „map-memory“ of the countryside. We film the flying honey-makers with a high-speed camera and then simulate their flight with a drone. The images are then elaborated in the way that scientists believe that bees see the world.

The „Monte Kali“ near Heringen is for instance the highest artificial German mountain. The farmer-made perfect symmetry of the hop fields in Baverian Holledau reveal all their magic when you look at them from above.

Hikers are charmed not only towards wild landscapes like the Höllentalklamm at the Zugspitze mountain. In 2014 a 75 meter big crop circle near the radome at Raisting in Bavaria attracted curiosity-seekers from all the world to the Ammersee. We shot these science fiction shapes and their visitors from an adequate perspective: from above. Yet no matter how intergalactic a redesigned field can be, it is still quite an extraordinary experience when you do see the hidden, all very earthy inhabitants of meadows and woods. Near the river Main in Franconia we encounter at eyes´height those flying artists that dwell only in healthy forests with clean waters: the black storks.

We fly with two black stork parents giving „flight lessons“ to their young bird and visualise the real GPS data of the flying territory. Just like we track the route of a female wolf who was born in a military training camp near Magdeburg and wandered almost to Hamburg.

The waldrapps were extinct in Germany already in the XVII century. Now their late offsprings, kept in zoos and born in captivity are brought back into the wild. Yet the funny-looking ibis have to learn the migration route from Germany to Italy from their human „parents“ flying on an ultra-light aircraft. We were in the air with the young waldrapps, accompanying a few of their training sessions in the Berchtesgadener Land, one of the most spectacular nature areas in Germany.

Much smaller flying and orientation wizards do have their place in „Germany From Above“ too. We show how bees fly following a kind of „map-memory“ of the countryside. We film the flying honey-makers with a high-speed camera and then simulate their flight with a drone. The images are then elaborated in the way that scientists believe that bees see the world.

Facts

First aired Sunday, 24th May 2015, 19:30 pm, on ZDF

Feedback

Small advance clip from the Cities episode of the mini series Germany from above 4. The clip soon became viral on ZDF networks’ Facebook-page. Within 48 hours it hade one million viewers. Later ARD Sportschau and the site of the German Football Leaguze DFL also posted the link, again with a million viewers.